Mephedrone petition reaches major milestone (From York Press)
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This campaign by The Press intends to make the drug mephedrone illegal.
The drug, commonly known as bubbles, meow, meow or M-CAT, which can cost as little as £3 a dose, is becoming increasingly popular among young people in North and East Yorkshire, but its effects can be devastating.
Phone Jennifer Bell at The Press on 01904 653051 ext 315 or email jennifer.bell@thepress.co.uk for further details.
Mephedrone petition reaches major milestone
9:39am Wednesday 17th February 2010 in
OUR campaign to ban the drug mephedrone is gathering pace after more people signed The Press petition, writes Jennifer Bell.
The Menace Of Mephedrone campaign aims to outlaw the drug and our petition calling for it to be banned has now passed 200 signatures.
Meanwhile, more evidence of the devastating impact of the “legal high” continued to be given to The Press.
One mother, who did not want to be named, said: “My 16-year-old has used this drug but says he has only taken it a few times. He has actually been accused by the parents of his mates of selling it and I have had money stolen as well. He has been doing well at college and working, but this drug is taking over our teenagers and it isn’t good. I already have one son who smokes grass and I am now wondering where I have gone wrong.” She said she was a single parent who worked hard to look after her children but felt she was to blame.
“My son says if us parents didn’t have a go at our kids then they wouldn’t feel the need to take the drug,” she said. “Most of his mates are taking it.”
“This drug needs making illegal and quickly because it is doing so much damage to teenagers and their families.
“I have a 12-year-old and a two-year-old as well, so this is affecting them, especially my 12-year-old.”
• Do you have a story about “legal highs” such as mephedrone?
Phone Jennifer Bell on 01904 653051 extension 315 or email jennifer.bell@thepress.co.uk
Comments(4)
TooRad
says...
1:18pm Wed 17 Feb 10
This campaign was launched four Wednesdays ago, to a comments list numbering 73, mostly dissenting.
By the 1st of this month the Press were claiming 150. Now another two weeks later, 200.
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So, (we'll allow the Press staff who've signed it and the obsessives who've multiple signed) that's 50 a week, 7 a day. From a city of well over 100,000 and a website with a worldwide readership that's more of a pet rock than a milestone.
.
If the Press were interested in journalism or investigation or even campaigning for social good, they would take note of the comments from a wide variety of people who speak from real life without spin and they would be able to see, as any Joe can, that there are much deeper and far more significant issues in play here.
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There are a ton of leads to follow in the comments - the commonly held notion that prohibition isn't working, the comparison between unheard-of legal highs and the infamously deadly legal highs tobacco and alcohol, parent-child guidance, drugs education etc etc.
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A simplistic "Ban this Filth!" campaign backed up with standardised lies just makes the Press look unprofessional, naive and hugely biased.
D_Dutch
says...
10:02am Thu 18 Feb 10
TooRad
says...
8:26pm Thu 18 Feb 10
.
But...
I think the Press and I are mutually exclusive. They wouldn't employ someone like me and I wouldn't be prepared to work for a company like them. Not without a change of policy anyway...
:D
More The Menace of Mephedrone stories
- New warning over mephedrone
- Mephedrone likely to have been a factor in death of Malton woman Lois Waters, inquest told
- Mephedrone: The aftermath
- Number of mephedrone dealers ‘will fall by half’
- School head ‘delighted’ by mephedrone campaign
- Was The Press right to call for a ban on mephedrone?
- Eight held in purge on mephedrone
- Police seize Mephedrone worth £30k
- Police urge anyone in possession of mephedrone to dispose of it before ban
- MP's mephedrone modification fears
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meefy says...
10:08am Wed 17 Feb 10
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In what pathetic world does 200 names on a petition qualify as a major milestone?
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As for the mother interviewed, i don't really think she has anything to worry about. Her son is doing well at college and working after all. Teenagers like to experiment, show a more positive attitude to it and you might find that its not so bad really.